Arthur reaches into the crate, and pulls out two canvas satchels he had prepared, true to his scouting and military background, for the apocalypse many had said was coming.
The labels above the buckles read "Arthur
Nordgren-Fairfax Fairfax-Miller" and "Rebecca
Miller Fairfax-Miller" respectively. He opens the former, and inspects the contents one by one.
He's good at being prepared, but being cryogenically frozen for two centuries was beyond even his foresight.
The first aid kit, being military surplus, was vacuum packed, with the seal intact. The bandages would be alright, but anything else'd be too expired to be used by anyone but the most desperate.
The leather pouch contains a fire lighting kit. The ferrous rod is fine, the lighter works, just about. The silver birch bark, cotton wool and king alfred's cakes are long gone, but the bits of bicycle inner tube remain.
His knife, as he pulls it from it's leather sheath, reveals itself to be in reasonable condition, being well oiled and stored in an environment lacking in humidity.
Still sharp. Good for survival, or making your enemies not survive, should it come to that.His headtorch is fully intact, as is the hand crank charger, but a quick look at the batteries shows them to be degraded beyond any use.
Finally, wrapped in oiled cloth, is his service revolver, a mk.VII Webley. Not stolen, technically, as they'd transferred him to the territorial army after getting out of hospital, rather than a full discharge.
Well, if I ever do get back to blighty, I'm due a ducking massive amount of back pay, because I certainly didn't get frozen deliberately. Assuming there's even a British army. Or even a Britain. Unwrapping it, he checks all aspects of it's motion. It still breaks oven, the cylinder still spins and the rounds sit properly in the chambers without sticking.
He goes back to the crate he took the 10mm pistol from, and removes one of the holsters, placing his revolver in it. It doesn't fit very well, being for a completely different design of pistol, but it's better than accidentally shooting himself if he shoves it in his security armour.
The sketchbook and copy of
Scouting for Boys is sealed in an airtight bag, and intact when he checks it, before replacing and resealing.
He quickly checks the other satchel, and finds the same things in the same state, save for the knife being less used and the moleskin-bound notebook and a camera in place of a pistol.
The coins in both bags, a mix of American and British, are fine, neither of them ever having contained notes due to their fragility and reliance on an intact banking system.
Nine
The pip-boy screen flickers until the usual starting menu shows. Nine chooses the calendar, trying to answer a question that has been bothering him for a while. The small green screen finally show the desired information: October 24th, 2281. 02:01 pm.
He decides it's time to share his thoughts with the others. "Hey, people, looks like it's the end of October, well into Autumn, and since this is Boston, it will probably be already pretty cold outside the vault. I hope we find some winter clothes somewhere, or it will be complicated to move outside, particularly at night, unless we soon find some shelter."
He moves closer to the crate with their personal belongings, or whatever are left of them after 200 years. "Also, at this latitude and date we should have few hours of light left. Perhaps it's best for us to finish exploring the place, and stay the night on the vault. We can try to leave early next morning, after some rest and food. What do you think?"
While waiting for responses he dives his hand into the crate. Soon it comes out holding a wallet. Nine opens it to find, on one side his old military ID card, and on the other a large round metallic badge with a star on the center and "Criminal Investigation Command" written above it, with the word "Inspector" and several numbers below. He looks at it and sighs.
A second search at the crate results in a backpack. As with the wallet, the leather is falling apart. He opens it to find some 200 years-old underwear, a sweatshirt, pants and a short barrel Magnum .44 revolver, with a small box of bullets. Nine looks carefully at the weapon, imagining if it would still work after all this time... It definitively needs some oil, or he risks having it jammed after the first shot.
He discards the backpack and stuffs the duffel bag with the clothes, the wallet and the gun, making the bag swell to its limits.
Nine takes the strange glass box that was on one crate and tries to open it, with no success. He puts it next to Jay. "Hey, do you want to have a look at it? I suppose it may be a prototype of that portable cryo device the Overseer was working on..."
He moves ahead through the catwalk, between the lines of crates and coffins, reaching the door to the main entrance, and begins to analyze it.
PER check on the door to the main entrance: 1d10+6 = 14
Seeing Nine holding a similar gun to his, Arthur remarks "Better wait till I can give that a proper look at and service, or we might end up calling you eight instead" as he slings both satchels onto his shoulder, and follows him onto the catwalk
PER check on the door to the main entrance: 1d10(7)+6 = 15